Page 151 of Slew Foot
“Mm-hmm,” Rafe said, typing out a response to Katrin.Thanks! That’s helpful.
Ask them for a yeasted dough with no streusel.
I will! Thanks again.
I’m happy to help. Let me know if I can do anything else. Mickey is very stubborn about accepting help.
I had noticed that,Rafe agreed.It’s okay. I love him.
Rafe got a heart back in response.
Although Rafe found a couple of German bakeries in the area, none of them had the kind of cake he wanted listed on their website. He might have to ask them to make it special, which was fine. But he wasn’t sure which one was the best.
And Mickey deserved the best.
Time to talk to another O’Shea. He scrolled through his contacts before bringing up the text thread he had with Catherine.
He typed out a message.I need your help. Do you know of any German bakeries in Boston?
There wasn’t a response right away, so he dicked around on his phone while he waited.
There are several, she said when she replied.Did you have something specific in mind?
He explained the whole thing and she said,Well, I think there are a couple of options. Would you like me to recommend which I think you should try first?
That would be great!
The sound of the door opening made him jump in surprise and Mickey appeared in the living room a few minutes later, his hair sticking up in every direction and a confused look on his face.
“Where’d you go?” he rasped, leaning against the wall. “And where is my phone? I’ve been looking everywhere for it.”
“Your mom sent you a message,” Rafe blurted out, holding Mickey’s phone out to him.Ahh fuck. He’d kinda forgotten this plan might involve not being totally honest with Mickey and he wassobad at lying.
“Oh, thanks. Good idea. The vibrations might have woken me up,” Mickey said, taking the phone from him.
“Sure,” Rafe said. They’d go with that.
The latest scan results came in two days later and Dr. Pope was right. Mickey had labyrinthitis.
Rafe and Tanner wanted to celebrate. After all, this ear thing was easier to treat than a concussion.
But Mickey seemed reluctant to get his hopes up, and they all went back to being nervous about it as Mickey took the first doses of medication.
“It could take a little while,” he warned them both, but Rafe could see the way his face fell the next morning when he woke up to ringing in his ears.
And when it wasn’t really any better the next day either.
“It’s only been two days,” Mickey said bravely, but Rafe could see it was wearing on him.
In between waiting for improvement in Mickey’s symptoms, trying to win some hockey games, and hunting down German plum cake, Rafe was even more of a wreck.
“What are you so jumpy about?” Mickey asked him with a frown one night as Rafe prepped for a game.
“Nothing!” Rafe said. He shoved his phone in his suit pocket and tried to straighten his tie.
“You and Tanner aren’t planning a surprise party or something, are you?”
“Noooo,” Rafe said, which was totally true. He had finally gotten ahold of a bakery that could make the plum cake though.
